Crinkle
by xxMichelle
Summary: A series of oneshots and drabbles of the KakaSaku variety. Legths, ratings, and such all vary. 003:You missed it, she thought as she looked through the pill pack just one more time.
1. Not Quite Kisses

001

* * *

Their relationship started out innocently enough.

"Because I kind of like you." Sakura admitted, shockingly not as embarassed as she should have been, to which Kakashi retorted, "Well, I think I made it obvious enough that I liked you, too."

And so Sakura didn't even have time to marvel at the fact that here she was, a twenty four year old fully fledged jonin and world renowned medical ninja telling a man that was once her sensei, a man that watched her grow up into who she was today, someone equally feared and talented in their deadly art, that she 'liked' him.

And the mutual interest made her heart pound in her chest. She was ever so nervous and excited and definitely relieved she managed to put her feelings out like that. Still, her mind raced with a milion things she wanted to tell him and none of them were able to come out, no matter how hard she tried. Kakashi was an intimidating man and though she managed to force out a well anticipated 'I kind of like you', there was certainly a line.

Sakura was kind of intimidated.

Through their previous few weeks together, hanging out with no purpose - not at all training, not preparing for some random mission, not being pushed into international peace keeping deals as well-known ninja; instead going out for coffee or meeting at the park late at night to talk about books or movies or his dogs, which Sakura had grown quite fond of. Somewhere along the line, somewhere between Naruto and Sasuke doing their own things and ANBU tearing the rest of their insanely difficult to track team apart, Kakashi and Sakura had began to depend on each other and to grow closer.

As subtle as it was, she noticed it happening and she knew that Kakashi, as perceptive as he had always been, must have as well.

So much time spent building up to this one moment, standing in front of the door to Sakura's apartment at midnight. And now they stood in silence, Sakura's mind still whirling with the fantastic and the less-than, Kakashi his usual stoic appearing self.

She would think with him being he would have said something else. But then she also realized with him having been a teacher to her it might not be wise for him to make rash moves - but he said it! He said he liked her back!

She had probably been thinking it for minutes, since before Kakashi leaned back against the thin, metal railing, that she really, _really_ just wished he would kiss her.

"Nice night, huh?" Kakashi asked, as if he were about to tell her he adopted another puppy or declined, yet again, to take on another genin team of his own. Here Sakura was practically ready for her own students. Yet she was a million times more ready for a damn kiss.

She could feel the question against her tongue, begging to be asked. Isn't he going to? Doesn't he want to?

"Yeah," She said.

Kakashi snorted, "I don't mean the weather, Sakura. I mean the sentiment. The thing as a whole."

They had seen each other earlier and she was definitely thinking things similar to what she was thinking now. She just hadn't said them. Neither had he. And he was, apparantly, okay with leaving things the way they were.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Sakura agreed once more, "I've been thinking about this for a while, you know."

"Yeah? Me too."

And another short lapse of silence. She wanted to ask it. She wanted to ask it _so bad_. She repeated it in her mind over and over and over until finally she could feel it slip past her lips -

"Aren't you going to kiss me?"

And Kakashi took his hand off the railing, "Sure."

He closed the three odd steps between them, her eyes glued to him the entire short time. That same hand tugged down his mask and that easily, there was his face. Her eyes took in the sight for the very first time, yet so overwhelmed and without much time she didn't get to _really_ take it in; not before she could feel him touching her as he leaned down to seal their lips.

And she pulled away.

There was just something about kissing that gave her so much anxiety she couldn't help it. It took her literal weeks to kiss her first boy but since then she'd kissed a few others, she'd had sex with a few more; she just got so nervous sometimes. Kakashi made her so nervous. She grew aware that her legs were beginning to shake.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to do that." She said, blush spreading across her cheeks.

_Try again_! Was more along the lines of her internal screaming. She wanted him to try again. She could do it if he tried again.

And he did try again. His warmth, his scent, his lips just barely brushing against hers - and she pulled away again.

"I'm sorry!" She apologized, "I'm just so nervous!"

He laughed, backing off slightly, "That's okay."

This was the first time she had ever seen him smile. He had the most perfect, straight, white teeth. A jawline she knew was straight and rugged; the perfect facial structure. Clear skin. The typical little wrinkles beginning to form as you'd expect on any almost forty year old man. He was handsome. Maybe not Sasuke handsome, definitely in a more masculine way, but a big part of what she found attractive about Kakashi was his masculinity. His tall stature, his musculature, all that stuff considering she had never seen his face.

She realized he was staring. She could even feel him breathing in their close proximity.

Of all times, why _now_ would she have some huge kissing crisis? She tilted her head forward against his shoulder and they continued on in silence.

But it was nice.

Kakashi pressed his lips against her hair, wrapping his arms around her and he assured her, "Don't worry so much about that stuff, okay? It's fine if you're nervous or don't have too much experience; I'm not an impatient person, you know... God, you make me feel so old. Maybe we shouldn't do this thing."

The medic jerked back, "What? I have _totally_ kissed guys before. Like at least five. And I'm not exactly a virgin. You're just intimidating!"

"Relax, I'm kidding; I still like you."

She put her head back. She closed her eyes. She relaxed into Kakashi's embrace.

Her legs were still shaking.

They let time pass silently, five minutes, maybe ten. Sakura wasn't trying to keep track. She did, however, almost feel bad having him stay here and hold her when they should be kissing, bare minimum, maybe in the privacy of her bedroom. This didn't seem like a very Kakashi-like thing. Although, she supposed, he wasn't really complaining.

"You should probably head home," She finally suggested, turning her face into the crook of his neck.

"Probably," He agreed, but he didn't let go.

And Sakura knew there would be more to come.


	2. Dirty Laundry

Note: I know I keep going with this whole 'beginning' theme, but don't worry. It won't stay like this. Pure coincidence. I happened to get two ideas back to back that I liked and neither of them really involved much in the way of established relationships.

I hope you enjoy it, anyhow~

* * *

It starts with Kakashi folding laundry.

Naruto has only been in the village for maybe a week or so and catching up with everybody after another two and a half year training period across the globe with the only man close to matching his skill is beyond exciting. He loves Sasuke to death, they had a good time abroad - traveling, learning, getting reacquainted - but there is only so much he can do with that guy.

And when Naruto goes to Kakashi's apartment complex he doesn't bother knocking. It has been so long, he's missed his teacher so thoroughly, and there is no way a man with perception like his could miss him coming. The blonde simply tugs the bedroom window open and steps inside like he was invited, immediately going off on a tangent, "Kakashi-sensei, I missed you so much! You have no idea, I missed everybody, but I _really_ missed you. You know, team seven thing. Made me homesick to think about it - what are you holding?"

A mismatched pair of eyes and a pair of cerulean blue ones travel down to the lacy black underwear in his hands.

Kakashi answers like they're nothing, "I'm folding laundry."

Sure enough, on the bed in front of him are piles of clothes. Copious uniforms and bedtime clothes. One of them looked a little _small_.

"Those are ladies underwear." Naruto says, completely forgetting the adventure stories and excitement for this brief moment.

"Well, if I have a lady friend over and she leaves her clothes in a pile on my bathroom floor I'm not just going to ignore them while I wash all my own laundry. That would be a total dick move, Naruto. Have some chivalry." The jonin explains.

"You have a lady friend?"

"Don't _you_ have a lady friend, too?"

There is a short silence between them and ever so slowly, Kakashi folds the black panties into a neat square and places them on top of the smaller jonin uniform put out to his side as Naruto slowly digests the fact that Kakashi got laid in here not too long ago.

He is well aware Kakashi reads porn in public and is a grown man but that is not at all a way he wants to think about him.

All naked.

With his 'lady friend'.

He cannot stop staring at this tiny square of lacy black skimpy booty shorts _masquarading_ as panties when he has another sudden epiphany - "Isn't that how _Sakura_ folds her underwear?!"

He asks this out loud, not realizing how inappropriate it sounds, but Sakura has a ring on her finger that wasn't there before - in her own words she has a 'gentleman friend' who she made seem was a civilian! But for one sick second Naruto could almost think it was Kakashi.

"How would you know how Sakura folds her underwear?" Kakashi asked, quirking one silver eyebrow ever so slightly.

And suddenly Naruto turns red. He's not supposed to know that. Right. "Well, you know, we're out in the field a lot! I've seen her pack and unpack plenty of times!"

"Well so have I, but I don't _watch_ her while she does it as much as _see_ her doing it. And are you implying that these are Saurka's underwear in my room and that Sakura is my lady friend?"

Hearing it come out of Kakashi's mouth makes it so much worse and Naruto is tempted to jab a kunai in his ears to make it stop. Too much. Too much to think about.

"Because that's silly," Kakashi continues, "You're like a whole jonin yourself now. You've been a member of my own team for ten years. Where is your attention to detail? Sakura never wears her uniform. Skirts and spandex and any kind of durable shirt and sports bra work for her. It's been like that since she was like fourteen."

Naruto realizes Kakashi is one hundred percent right. Why would he sleep with Sakura, anyway? That must be against the rules or something and Kakashi is all about virtue. He almost feels bad for implying such a horrible thing.

"However," Kakashi says, "I have a feeling she _would_ probably wear lacy black panties."

And with that Naruto has to leave.

* * *

Naruto goes to test his theory at the hospital; this theory, of course, being that Sakura is taking it from Kakashi in some sordid ANBU-style fuck buddy regime. The ring is there to throw him off! It's so he _thinks_ she's seeing a nice, civilian boy and not at all their perverted almost forty year old teacher!

He shakes his head, feeling a full body chill creep up on him every so persistantly. Gross. Super gross. Surely he will have nightmares.

Sakura is caught up in patient care when he arrives, sticking an obviously nauseated child. He bursts into the room like nobody is even sick, "Who are you _marrying_?"

Sakura doesn't even look at him, simply pulls the needle out of the catheter and tapes the young boy's line down nice and secure, "A nice civilian boy, Naruto."

"That is such a lie. I know about Kakashi-sensei and you being all intimate and you leaving your panties in his room!"

Sakura's face flushes and the mother gasps at such a thought being introduced to her sick son. Finally the medic turns to him and pushes him past the curtain and into the hall, "That is so inappropriate, Naruto! I am not sleeping with Kakashi!"

He gasps, recoiling, practically screeching, "YOU JUST CALLED HIM KAKASHI; OH MY GOD."

"No, you're hearing what you want to hear. I said Kakashi-_sensei_."

"YOU DID NOT EVEN!"

Sakura punches Naruto hard in the gut. People are staring. She is red, embarassed, practically shaking. Surely there will be gossip all across the hospital about this.

"I told you I am marrying a nice, civilian boy! I am not a liar, Naruto! Go away!" She whispers frantically.

"Well, who is this nice civilian boy, then? When can I meet him?" The blonde asked, still a tad too loud for Sakura's taste. Everybody at the information desk is still gawking. The woman who had been previously eating lunch had a fork frozen halfway to her mouth and everything. They were a spectacle - and not a normal ER critical patient one, a melodramatic one.

"Go home." Sakura orders and she goes back to her patient.

* * *

"You're sleeping with Kakashi-sensei?"

It is the first thing Sasuke says to her in two and a half years. Naruto is staring. Sasuke is staring, slightly less intrigued, but she sees the curiosity behind those black eyes regardless. She is displeased. All she wanted was tea and to catch up, so here they are at Sakura's rather spacious apartment, supposedly having a 'nice time'.

Being interrogated was not Sakura's idea of nice, however.

"No." She answered, "I am not sleeping with Kakashi-_sensei_."

Sasuke leaned across the table, eyes narrowed underneath long bangs. He held up his hand, one digit among the rest extended. "Pinky swear." He demanded.

And Sakura wondered how much Naruto had to beg him to do that. The blonde future hokage is watching their exchange with extreme intensity, so much so he might even break a sweat.

"Fine." The medic agrees, wrapping her own pinky around Sasuke's. The Uchiha stares her down suspiciously and Naruto watches on for the two or so seconds their swear lasts. Then finally, Sasuke turns toward Naruto and shruggs.

"What the hell was that?" Sakura asked, "Did you think I was going to break down and tell you everything because Sasuke asked me?!"

"Yeah." Both boys reply.

"Unbelieveable."

She can almost feel a tension headache come on. All she wanted was some tea, to hear their stories, to bond like they really were team seven, and to leave all the gossip at the door. She was particularily disappoibted that Sasuke got involved. Normally Sasuke hated gossip as much as he hated the sun and the galaxy and everybody in it, but here he was falling for it this once. She did suppose it kind of involved him. Or at least part of his childhood - the part before he abandoned them and everything they knew.

"Maybe she and Kakashi-sensei really aren't together? What really lead you to that conclusion, anyway?" Sasuke asks, turning his attention to Naruto.

The blond looks offended, "Well, duh! It is so obvious! Kakashi was folding her panties!"

"What panties?" Sakura asks.

And suddenly Naruto is quiet.

The ones that were on top of a uniform she never wears. He realized that he really had nothing that actually stated they were together other than Kakashi hypothysizing what her panties might look like and the fact that they're both sleeping with _someone_.

"You dumbass." Sasuke says, "Leave it to such an idiot to come up with an actual conspiracy."

"I wouldn't quite call it a conspiracy, Sasuke, you drama queen!" Naruto objected.

"Whatever, you didn't even have any real proof! I should have never even listened to you! I mean, for God's sake LOOK at her ring, even! It's huge! That is way out of Kakashi's paygrade!"

"Oh my God, he told me he knew what kind of underwear she wore!"

"I bed he didn't!"

"He did!"

Her headache was returning just as it had started to fade away. It was really, genuinely difficult to believe these were two twenty four year old, world renowned ninja. Through the boys' bickering however, Sakura heard a knock at the door. She wordlessly excused herself from the table.

" Haruno?" Asked a man with a vase of vibrant, spring-colored flowers.

"Yes."

"Delivery for you."

She took the flowers, knowing damn well they were from her gentleman friend. Worst timing ever. Why would she ever even bother having people over? She brought them inside without so much as thanking the deliveryman and immediately all eyes were on her.

One second of silence.

Then a new debate.

"Is there a card?!" Naruto screamed.

"Shut up, Naruto." She said, putting the beautiful arrangement down on the table. There was in fact a card and she reached for it, grabbing it before they could open it.

"There is! Open it!"

Before she had a chance to so much as open her mouth, Sasuke's pale hand snatched the envelope away from her, tore it open, and was pouring over it with his obnoxious best friend.

"You are such a liar!"

She snatched it back.

In fine cursive, it reads, _from not Kakashi._

* * *

Kakashi wakes up to the sound of careless footsteps approaching in the hallway. A familiar pattern, too. Sakura's.

She lets herself in and Kakashi shields his eyes, muttering "Don't turn on the light."

"Okay, okay, I won't."

She stood by the edge of his bed, arms crossed over her chest as she told him, "Naruto and Sasuke think we're sleeping together."

"I know." Kakashi replied, yawning. It must have been midnight. Now he would be up forever and have to sleep in later than usual. Or so he decided. "Do you want me to tell them you were just taking a shower and left your clothes?"

She shrugged, "No. Kinda pointless."

"Why does it matter so much to you, anyway? If we're going to get married they should know, either way. They'll figure it out. And keeping a secret makes it look a lot worse, Sakura; despite the fact that you've been my pupil."

The voice of reason, always. These had been thoughts of her own and she sighed, sitting down next to him, "I wasn't even ready for them to come back and then Naruto has to catch you folding my panties, it just doesn't look good no matter which way we spin it now. It just seems so sordid."

"You have a ring on your finger, it's not sordid. Are you going to actually get in bed with me or no?"

At his question, Sakura lifted the blankets and turned, laying on her side to face him. She threw them back over herself, adjusting to get comfortable.

Kakashi continued, "You should just drop it on them. Now or never. The longer you wait the worse it looks, and you and I being together really isn't as bad a thing as you seem to think it is."

The best advice always came from Kakashi. Life advice, work advice, love advice - he was wise beyond his years and then some. It was one of her favorite perks of being with him.

"Oh," She remembered, "They said my ring was way out of your paygrade."

Kakashi laughed, "I live in a one bedroom apartment and go on back to back S-ranks, at least doubling their income combined. I live for this job. What the hell do they think I'm doing with all my money?"

She laughed too, "I really don't know."

"Please tell them. I really want them to know an expensive ring is well within my paygrade and that we can be together without being sordid."

"It's still such a beautiful ring, by the way."

* * *

Sakura met the boys by the bridge. They'd just finished up training, or rather kicking and screaming like children, and were dirty and tired. They were heading in the direction of the village, most likely for a pit stop at the ramen stand.

"Hey!" She called, jogging slightly to catch up.

Naruto turned, excited by the sound of her voice. Always so friendly. It was like he had the whole conversation on the tip of his tongue before they'd even started talking and he was honestly kind of inescapable in that sense. He had great energy.

But before he managed to get anything out other than a returned greeting, Sakura had already caught up and was clasping their shoulders between them, "When Kakashi folds my underwear into squares he puts them inside my bras and then puts them in my underwear drawer matching like that. It makes getting dressed in the morning really easy. I just thought you should know he takes care of me; not just has sex with me."

Jaws dropped. Feet stopped moving.

"What?!"


	3. Pregnancy Test

The first drabble among two oneshosts. Please be aware that often times these will be drabbles! Not a whole bunch of my ideas are large enough to write whole thousands of words xD

* * *

_You missed it_, she thought as she looked through the pill pack just one more time, _you fucking missed it_.

This had to have been the least okay thing that has ever happened to her in her entire life. She needed missions. She needed financial security. She needed to be _married_.

"Hey."

"Jesus Christ, Kakashi!" Sakura screamed, turning around and whipping the pill pack at him in a frightened rage, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

The copy ninja laughed, "Oh, you know. Situational awareness. Find some. Were you going to take one of those?"

He pointed one glove-clad finger at the floor and Sakura's eyes followed it.

"No." She said, "I already took one. Today."

So Kakashi bent over and picked it up to hand over to his lovely, angry girlfriend. "Here you are, then. I'm going out for groceries. Need anything?"

"Yes," Sakura replied, "A pregnancy test."

"... Excuse me?"


End file.
